ICANN and Verisign announce successful end to 90 day test

90-day Root Zone Management System “parallel testing” period is a key step in the IANA stewardship transition implementation.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and Verisign, this week announced the successful completion of a 90-day parallel testing period of the Root Zone Management System (RZMS), which concluded on 6 July 2016. During the testing period, zero unexplained differences were found between the production RZMS and the parallel test version of the RZMS, which has the U.S. National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) authorization step removed. This result confirms that the production RZMS and parallel test system produce an identical output for every root zone file published, which was a key step to ensuring the continued security and stability of the Internet’s root zone post transition.

During the test, daily comparison reports were available on Verisign’s website. Additionally, monthly progress reports for the testing period are available on ICANN’s designated RZMS Parallel Testing webpage.

The authorization process step performed by NTIA will be removed upon the successful completion of the IANA Stewardship Transition, currently projected for 30 September 2016. Until then, the authoritative root zone file will continue to be produced by the production RZMS that contains the authorization step performed by NTIA.